Economic feasibility of district heating delivery from industrial excess heat: A case study of a Swedish petrochemical cluster

The present work discusses the potential and the economic feasibility of DH (district heating) delivery using industrial excess heat from a petrochemical cluster at the Swedish West Coast. Pinch Analysis was used for estimating the DH capacity targets and for estimating the cost of heat exchanger installation. A discounted cash flow rate of return of 10% was used as a criterion for identifying the minimum yearly DH delivery that should be guaranteed for a given DH capacity at different DH sales prices. The study was conducted for the current scenario in which no heat recovery is achieved between the cluster plants and for a possible future scenario in which 50% of the fuel currently used for heating purposes is saved by increasing the heat recovery at the site. The competition between excess heat export and local energy efficiency measures is also discussed in terms of CO2 emission consequences. The maximum capacity of DH delivery amounts today to around 235 MW, which reduces to 110 MW in the future scenario of increased site heat recovery. The results of our analysis show that feasible conditions exist that make DH delivery profitable in the entire capacity range